Crowds line up to experience corpse flower in US

The 8-foot (2.4-meter) flower bloomed Sunday at the U.S. Botanic Garden next to the Capitol. But by the time visitors lined up Monday morning, Plant Curator Bill McLaughlin says the “incredible stench” of rotting flesh the flower is famous for had cleared out. The plant is native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Experts had been anticipating the bloom for more than a week, and it is now expected to collapse on itself. The garden’s last corpse flower bloom was in 2007.